GO FBWidget – Android Widget to Access Facebook for GO Launcher EX

GO FBWidget is one of the new GOWidgets that compliments GO Launcher EX, one of the most popular and praised home replacement apps on the Android Market. The widget is part of a growing family of add-ons for the launcher, which also includes Calendar, Messaging and Contacts. The app is pretty functional and may well be welcomed by GO Launcher EX fans. However, it has a host of limitations and problems which might put many off.

Features:

After recently adding a Twitter widget to their assembly of GO widgets, users now also have a Facebook widget. While quite basic, the widget lets you add posts and pictures in addition to scrolling through your Facebook stream. You can comment on or ‘Like’ your Facebook friends’ posts and, if needed, you can touch the top of the widget to link directly to the official Facebook app if you have it installed. The widget is quite nice and will look good if you also use any of the other GO widgets in the collection.

However, I have found the widget severely lacking. Firstly the widget comes in a slightly-lighter-than facebook blue (which contextually looks a bit strange), but then all the other GO widgets are in this color too. Which is actually one of the problems with the GO Widget family. While GO Dev team, and a variety of third party developers make some of the most unique and brilliant themes in the Android Market for GO Launcher EX, every widget comes in this dreary blue color and cannot be customized or changed. This is disappointing as it defeats the purpose of the theme if the widgets look completely out of place on the homescreen.

Aesthetics aside, the app doesn’t have much in the way of functions beyond the very basic. You cannot view your friends’ profiles nor can you access or view groups. Weirdly, when you look at your own profile- which is available- your profile picture doesn’t come up. Furthermore, you cannot access your private messages through the widget. I thought this was particularly strange seeing that you can view DMs on the new GO Twitter widget, but for some reason not the Facebook one. Lastly, scrolling through the widget is also a bit sluggish as it lags and freezes as it takes in the posts. While this normally might be forgiven a little, the Twitter GO widget did scroll well, without any of these problems.

GO FBWidget – Can switch between Most Recent and Profile views

GO FBWidget – Timeline view

GO FBWidget – Timeline view 2

GO FBWidget – Post status update

GO FBWidget – Post view 2

GO FBWidget – Profile view

GO FBWidget – Tap on posts to enter, like, comment etc

GO FBWidget – Post picture options

GO FBWidget – Status update

GO FBWidget – Log in screen

GO FBWidget – Log out screen

GO FBWidget – Settings screen

Usefulness:

GO FBWidget is a useful addition to the family of GO Widgets available for free in the Android Market. You can post updates and pictures quite easily as well as viewing all your friends statuses. Each status can be opened, commented on or ‘Liked’ quite easily too. However, with limited functionality and a glitchy slow interface, you are going to have to be pretty committed to use the app on the regular basis. I’m no fan of the official Facebook for Android app, but it’s widget is far superior to this.

Ease of Use:

The widget is pretty simple to use and should be familiar to most users. It’s significantly let down by lack of functionality however and you will probably find yourself having to use the mobile website or the official Facebook app in order to do a lot of things.

Frequently Used:

If you don’t use Facebook much and only post the occasional update, this might suit you down to the ground. But more frequent users will rightly become frustrated by the lack of functionality and glitchy interface and switch to another app.

Interface:

The interface is at least viewable and it’s easy to follow people’s updates. However the sluggish manner in which the widget scrolls make for a disappointing experience. It’s just that the widget is so limited, you cannot expect much from it.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(2.3 out of 5)

Should you Download GO FBWidget? Even if you have the full range of GOWidgets, I would suggest you download the Facebook one with an air of caution. The lacklustre interface, chuggy scrolling, lack of private messaging, inability to view friend profiles and a variety of other issues means it really is going to be for the very committed GO fans only. While of course this is only a widget and not a fully fledged app, it’s still disappointing as even the Twitter app was better than this. I really like the GO eco-system and have been impressed by their launcher, but this widget is a sore disappointment and needs to be improved.